Associated content item instances

ABSTRACT

A first content item instance may be played by one or more participants and may be presented by one or more first compute nodes to the one or more participants. Information associated with the first content item instance may be collected. The information may include, for example, game state, user inputs, and other information associated with the first content item instance. The information may be provided as input to a second content item instance executing at one or more second compute nodes. Audio and/or video information output by the second content item instance may then be collected, and data including the collected information may be transmitted to one or more third compute nodes for presentation to spectators. Spectator feedback may be received and provided back to the first content item instance, which may be presented based, at least in part, on the spectator feedback.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to the following application, which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety: U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/579,033 filed Dec. 22, 2014, entitled “SPECTATORFEEDBACK AND ADAPTATION”.

BACKGROUND

As the powers and capabilities of computers continue to expand, thewidespread use and popularity of content items, such as video games,also continue to rapidly increase. A content item may sometimes beplayed by one or more participants and may also be viewed by one or morespectators. The participants may sometimes play the content item on aparticipant device, which may present the played content item to theparticipants, capture a video feed corresponding to the played contentitem, and stream the captured video feed to a service. The service maythen make the captured video feed available to spectators. This modelhas a number of associated drawbacks. For example, the process ofstreaming the video feed from the participants to the service mayrequire and consume large amounts of network bandwidth. Another exampledrawback is that output provided to the spectators is a video streamthat is linear and frame bound, with very little interactivity otherthan play and pause. Yet another example drawback is that voice chatfrom participants is not mixed into the video stream and is providedwithout, for example, characteristics associated with positions orlocations of the participants.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The following detailed description may be better understood when read inconjunction with the appended drawings. For the purposes ofillustration, there are shown in the drawings example embodiments ofvarious aspects of the disclosure; however, the invention is not limitedto the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a first example computing system thatmay be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a second example computing system thatmay be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating of an example content presentationsystem that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example spectator presentationcontrol interface that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating example camera perspectives that may beused in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating example audio mixing operations thatmay be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart depicting an example content providing processthat may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating of an example content presentationsystem with spectator feedback that may be used in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart depicting an example content providing processwith spectator feedback that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques for presentation of associated content item instances aredisclosed herein. In some cases, a first content item instance mayexecute at one or more first compute nodes. The first content iteminstance may be played by one or more participants and may be presentedby one or more first compute nodes to the one or more participants.Information associated with the first content item instance may becollected by one or more first compute nodes and transmitted to one ormore second compute nodes. The transmitted information may include, forexample, game state, user inputs, and other information associated withthe first content item instance. A second content item instance mayexecute at one or more second compute nodes, and the transmittedinformation associated with the first content item instance may beprovided as input to the second content item instance. Audio and/orvideo information output by the second content item instance may then becollected, and data including the collected information may betransmitted to one or more third compute nodes for presentation at theone or more third compute nodes.

In some cases, participant audio information provided by one or moreparticipants may be captured and transmitted from one or more firstcompute nodes to one or more second compute nodes. The one or moresecond compute nodes may then mix or otherwise insert the participantaudio information into the data transmitted to one or more third computenodes. Participant audio information provided by each participant maysometimes be mixed into the transmitted data in accordance with arespective audio effect, such as a particular volume and/or directionaleffect. Also, in some cases, the second content item instance may bepresented at one or more third compute nodes using enhanced presentationeffects such as adjustable virtual camera perspective, adjustablevirtual camera zoom, reverse, adjustable play speed, audio commentary,visual overlays, and others. Also, in some cases, feedback fromspectators at the third compute nodes may be provided back to the firstcontent item instance and also optionally the second content iteminstance.

An information provider may, in some cases, transmit information toclients over an electronic network, such as the Internet. An examplecomputing environment that enables transmission of information toclients will now be described in detail. In particular, FIG. 1illustrates an example computing environment in which the embodimentsdescribed herein may be implemented. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematicallyillustrating an example of a data center 210 that can provide computingresources to users 200 a and 200 b (which may be referred hereinsingularly as user 200 or in the plural as users 200) via user computers202 a and 202 b (which may be referred herein singularly as computer 202or in the plural as computers 202) and via a communications network 230.Data center 210 may be configured to provide computing resources forexecuting applications on a permanent or an as-needed basis. Thecomputing resources provided by data center 210 may include varioustypes of resources, such as gateway resources, load balancing resources,routing resources, networking resources, computing resources, volatileand non-volatile memory resources, content delivery resources, dataprocessing resources, data storage resources, data communicationresources, and the like. Each type of computing resource may begeneral-purpose or may be available in a number of specificconfigurations. For example, data processing resources may be availableas virtual machine instances that may be configured to provide variousweb services. In addition, combinations of resources may be madeavailable via a network and may be configured as one or more webservices. The instances may be configured to execute applicationsincluding web services, such as application services, media services,database services, processing services, gateway services, storageservices, routing services, security services, encryption services, loadbalancing services, application services, and the like. These servicesmay be configurable with set or custom applications and may beconfigurable in size, execution, cost, latency, type, duration,accessibility, and in any other dimension. These web services may beconfigured as available infrastructure for one or more clients and caninclude one or more applications configured as a platform or as softwarefor one or more clients. These web services may be made available viaone or more communications protocols. These communications protocols mayinclude, for example, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or non-HTTPprotocols. These communications protocols may also include, for example,more reliable transport layer protocols, such as transmission controlprotocol (TCP), and less reliable transport layer protocols, such asuser datagram protocol (UDP). Data storage resources may include filestorage devices, block storage devices, and the like.

Each type or configuration of computing resource may be available indifferent sizes, such as large resources—consisting of many processors,large amounts of memory and/or large storage capacity—and smallresources—consisting of fewer processors, smaller amounts of memoryand/or smaller storage capacity. Customers may choose to allocate anumber of small processing resources as web servers and/or one largeprocessing resource as a database server, for example.

Data center 210 may include servers 216 a and 216 b (which may bereferred herein singularly as server 216 or in the plural as servers216) that provide computing resources. These resources may be availableas bare metal resources or as virtual machine instances 218 a-d (whichmay be referred herein singularly as virtual machine instance 218 or inthe plural as virtual machine instances 218). Virtual machine instances218 c and 218 d are associated content virtual machine (ACVM) instances.The ACVM virtual machine instances 218 c and 218 d may be configured toperform any portion of the associated content item instance presentationtechniques and/or any other of the disclosed techniques in accordancewith the present disclosure and described in detail below. As should beappreciated, while the particular example illustrated in FIG. 1 includesone ACVM virtual machine in each server, this is merely an example. Aserver may include more than one ACVM virtual machine or may not includeany ACVM virtual machines.

The availability of virtualization technologies for computing hardwarehas afforded benefits for providing large scale computing resources forcustomers and allowing computing resources to be efficiently andsecurely shared between multiple customers. For example, virtualizationtechnologies may allow a physical computing device to be shared amongmultiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machineinstances hosted by the physical computing device. A virtual machineinstance may be a software emulation of a particular physical computingsystem that acts as a distinct logical computing system. Such a virtualmachine instance provides isolation among multiple operating systemssharing a given physical computing resource. Furthermore, somevirtualization technologies may provide virtual resources that span oneor more physical resources, such as a single virtual machine instancewith multiple virtual processors that span multiple distinct physicalcomputing systems.

Referring to FIG. 1, communications network 230 may, for example, be apublicly accessible network of linked networks and possibly operated byvarious distinct parties, such as the Internet. In other embodiments,communications network 230 may be a private network, such as a corporateor university network that is wholly or partially inaccessible tonon-privileged users. In still other embodiments, communications network230 may include one or more private networks with access to and/or fromthe Internet.

Communication network 230 may provide access to computers 202. Usercomputers 202 may be computers utilized by users 200 or other customersof data center 210. For instance, user computer 202 a or 202 b may be aserver, a desktop or laptop personal computer, a tablet computer, awireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an e-bookreader, a game console, a set-top box, or any other computing devicecapable of accessing data center 210. User computer 202 a or 202 b mayconnect directly to the Internet (e.g., via a cable modem or a DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL)). Although only two user computers 202 a and 202 bare depicted, it should be appreciated that there may be multiple usercomputers.

User computers 202 may also be utilized to configure aspects of thecomputing resources provided by data center 210. In this regard, datacenter 210 might provide a gateway 240 or web interface (not shown)through which aspects of its operation may be configured through the useof a web browser application program executing on user computer 202.Alternately, a stand-alone application program executing on usercomputer 202 might access an application programming interface (API)exposed by data center 210 for performing the configuration operations.Other mechanisms for configuring the operation of various web servicesavailable at data center 210 might also be utilized.

Servers 216 shown in FIG. 1 may be standard servers configuredappropriately for providing the computing resources described above andmay provide computing resources for executing one or more web servicesand/or applications. In one embodiment, the computing resources may bevirtual machine instances 218. In the example of virtual machineinstances, each of the servers 216 may be configured to execute aninstance manager 220 a or 220 b (which may be referred herein singularlyas instance manager 220 or in the plural as instance managers 220)capable of executing the virtual machine instances 218. The instancemanagers 220 may be a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or another type ofprogram configured to enable the execution of virtual machine instances218 on server 216, for example. As discussed above, each of the virtualmachine instances 218 may be configured to execute all or a portion ofan application.

It should be appreciated that although the embodiments disclosed abovediscuss the context of virtual machine instances, other types ofimplementations can be utilized with the concepts and technologiesdisclosed herein. For example, the embodiments disclosed herein mightalso be utilized with computing systems that do not utilize virtualmachine instances.

In the example data center 210 shown in FIG. 1, a router 214 may beutilized to interconnect the servers 216 a and 216 b. Router 214 mayalso be connected to gateway 240, which is connected to communicationsnetwork 230. Router 214 may be connected to one or more load balancers,and alone or in combination may manage communications within networks indata center 210, for example, by forwarding packets or other datacommunications as appropriate based on characteristics of suchcommunications (e.g., header information including source and/ordestination addresses, protocol identifiers, size, processingrequirements, etc.) and/or the characteristics of the private network(e.g., routes based on network topology, etc.). It will be appreciatedthat, for the sake of simplicity, various aspects of the computingsystems and other devices of this example are illustrated withoutshowing certain conventional details. Additional computing systems andother devices may be interconnected in other embodiments and may beinterconnected in different ways.

In the example data center 210 shown in FIG. 1, a server manager 215 isalso employed to at least in part direct various communications to, fromand/or between servers 216 a and 216 b. While FIG. 1 depicts router 214positioned between gateway 240 and server manager 215, this is merely anexemplary configuration. In some cases, for example, server manager 215may be positioned between gateway 240 and router 214. Server manager 215may, in some cases, examine portions of incoming communications fromuser computers 202 to determine one or more appropriate servers 216 toreceive and/or process the incoming communications. Server manager 215may determine appropriate servers to receive and/or process the incomingcommunications based on factors, such as an identity, location or otherattributes associated with user computers 202, a nature of a task withwhich the communications are associated, a priority of a task with whichthe communications are associated, a duration of a task with which thecommunications are associated, a size and/or estimated resource usage ofa task with which the communications are associated and many otherfactors. Server manager 215 may, for example, collect or otherwise haveaccess to state information and other information associated withvarious tasks in order to, for example, assist in managingcommunications and other operations associated with such tasks.

It should be appreciated that the network topology illustrated in FIG. 1has been greatly simplified and that many more networks and networkingdevices may be utilized to interconnect the various computing systemsdisclosed herein. These network topologies and devices should beapparent to those skilled in the art.

It should also be appreciated that data center 210 described in FIG. 1is merely illustrative and that other implementations might be utilized.Additionally, it should be appreciated that the functionality disclosedherein might be implemented in software, hardware or a combination ofsoftware and hardware. Other implementations should be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. It should also be appreciated that a server,gateway, or other computing device may comprise any combination ofhardware or software that can interact and perform the described typesof functionality, including without limitation: desktop or othercomputers, database servers, network storage devices and other networkdevices, PDAs, tablets, cellphones, wireless phones, pagers, electronicorganizers, Internet appliances, television-based systems (e.g., usingset top boxes and/or personal/digital video recorders) and various otherconsumer products that include appropriate communication capabilities.In addition, the functionality provided by the illustrated modules mayin some embodiments be combined in fewer modules or distributed inadditional modules. Similarly, in some embodiments the functionality ofsome of the illustrated modules may not be provided and/or otheradditional functionality may be available.

In at least some embodiments, a server that implements a portion or allof one or more of the technologies described herein may include ageneral-purpose computer system that includes or is configured to accessone or more computer-accessible media. FIG. 2 depicts a general-purposecomputer system that includes or is configured to access one or morecomputer-accessible media. In the illustrated embodiment, computingdevice 100 includes one or more processors 10 a, 10 b and/or 10 n (whichmay be referred herein singularly as “a processor 10” or in the pluralas “the processors 10”) coupled to a system memory 20 via aninput/output (I/O) interface 30. Computing device 100 further includes anetwork interface 40 coupled to I/O interface 30.

In various embodiments, computing device 100 may be a uniprocessorsystem including one processor 10 or a multiprocessor system includingseveral processors 10 (e.g., two, four, eight or another suitablenumber). Processors 10 may be any suitable processors capable ofexecuting instructions. For example, in various embodiments, processors10 may be general-purpose or embedded processors implementing any of avariety of instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as the x86,PowerPC, SPARC or MIPS ISAs or any other suitable ISA. In multiprocessorsystems, each of processors 10 may commonly, but not necessarily,implement the same ISA.

System memory 20 may be configured to store instructions and dataaccessible by processor(s) 10. In various embodiments, system memory 20may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as staticrandom access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM),nonvolatile/Flash®-type memory or any other type of memory. In theillustrated embodiment, program instructions and data implementing oneor more desired functions, such as those methods, techniques and datadescribed above, are shown stored within system memory 20 as code 25 anddata 26.

In one embodiment, I/O interface 30 may be configured to coordinate I/Otraffic between processor 10, system memory 20 and any peripherals inthe device, including network interface 40 or other peripheralinterfaces. In some embodiments, I/O interface 30 may perform anynecessary protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert datasignals from one component (e.g., system memory 20) into a formatsuitable for use by another component (e.g., processor 10). In someembodiments, I/O interface 30 may include support for devices attachedthrough various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of thePeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the UniversalSerial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some embodiments, thefunction of I/O interface 30 may be split into two or more separatecomponents, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, for example.Also, in some embodiments some or all of the functionality of I/Ointerface 30, such as an interface to system memory 20, may beincorporated directly into processor 10.

Network interface 40 may be configured to allow data to be exchangedbetween computing device 100 and other device or devices 60 attached toa network or networks 50, such as other computer systems or devices, forexample. In various embodiments, network interface 40 may supportcommunication via any suitable wired or wireless general data networks,such as types of Ethernet networks, for example. Additionally, networkinterface 40 may support communication via telecommunications/telephonynetworks, such as analog voice networks or digital fiber communicationsnetworks, via storage area networks, such as Fibre Channel SANs (storagearea networks) or via any other suitable type of network and/orprotocol.

In some embodiments, system memory 20 may be one embodiment of acomputer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions anddata as described above for implementing embodiments of thecorresponding methods and apparatus. However, in other embodiments,program instructions and/or data may be received, sent or stored upondifferent types of computer-accessible media. Generally speaking, acomputer-accessible medium may include non-transitory storage media ormemory media, such as magnetic or optical media—e.g., disk or DVD/CDcoupled to computing device 100 via I/O interface 30. A non-transitorycomputer-accessible storage medium may also include any volatile ornon-volatile media, such as RAM (e.g., SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM, SRAM,etc.), read only memory (ROM) etc., that may be included in someembodiments of computing device 100 as system memory 20 or another typeof memory. Further, a computer-accessible medium may includetransmission media or signals, such as electrical, electromagnetic ordigital signals conveyed via a communication medium, such as a networkand/or a wireless link, such as those that may be implemented vianetwork interface 40. Portions or all of multiple computing devices,such as those illustrated in FIG. 2, may be used to implement thedescribed functionality in various embodiments; for example, softwarecomponents running on a variety of different devices and servers maycollaborate to provide the functionality. In some embodiments, portionsof the described functionality may be implemented using storage devices,network devices or special-purpose computer systems, in addition to orinstead of being implemented using general-purpose computer systems. Theterm “computing device,” as used herein, refers to at least all thesetypes of devices and is not limited to these types of devices.

A compute node, which may be referred to also as a computing node, maybe implemented on a wide variety of computing environments, such ascommodity-hardware computers, virtual machines, web services, computingclusters and computing appliances. Any of these computing devices orenvironments may, for convenience, be described as compute nodes.

A network set up by an entity, such as a company or a public sectororganization, to provide one or more web services (such as various typesof cloud-based computing or storage) accessible via the Internet and/orother networks to a distributed set of clients may be termed a providernetwork. Such a provider network may include numerous data centershosting various resource pools, such as collections of physical and/orvirtualized computer servers, storage devices, networking equipment andthe like, needed to implement and distribute the infrastructure and webservices offered by the provider network. The resources may in someembodiments be offered to clients in various units related to the webservice, such as an amount of storage capacity for storage, processingcapability for processing, as instances, as sets of related services andthe like. A virtual computing instance may, for example, comprise one ormore servers with a specified computational capacity (which may bespecified by indicating the type and number of CPUs, the main memorysize and so on) and a specified software stack (e.g., a particularversion of an operating system, which may in turn run on top of ahypervisor).

A number of different types of computing devices may be used singly orin combination to implement the resources of the provider network indifferent embodiments, including general-purpose or special-purposecomputer servers, storage devices, network devices and the like. In someembodiments a client or user may be provided direct access to a resourceinstance, e.g., by giving a user an administrator login and password. Inother embodiments the provider network operator may allow clients tospecify execution requirements for specified client applications andschedule execution of the applications on behalf of the client onexecution platforms (such as application server instances, Java™ virtualmachines (JVMs), general-purpose or special-purpose operating systems,platforms that support various interpreted or compiled programminglanguages, such as Ruby, Perl, Python, C, C++ and the like, orhigh-performance computing platforms) suitable for the applications,without, for example, requiring the client to access an instance or anexecution platform directly. A given execution platform may utilize oneor more resource instances in some implementations; in otherimplementations, multiple execution platforms may be mapped to a singleresource instance.

In many environments, operators of provider networks that implementdifferent types of virtualized computing, storage and/or othernetwork-accessible functionality may allow customers to reserve orpurchase access to resources in various resource acquisition modes. Thecomputing resource provider may provide facilities for customers toselect and launch the desired computing resources, deploy applicationcomponents to the computing resources and maintain an applicationexecuting in the environment. In addition, the computing resourceprovider may provide further facilities for the customer to quickly andeasily scale up or scale down the numbers and types of resourcesallocated to the application, either manually or through automaticscaling, as demand for or capacity requirements of the applicationchange. The computing resources provided by the computing resourceprovider may be made available in discrete units, which may be referredto as instances. An instance may represent a physical server hardwareplatform, a virtual machine instance executing on a server or somecombination of the two. Various types and configurations of instancesmay be made available, including different sizes of resources executingdifferent operating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and with variousinstalled software applications, runtimes and the like. Instances mayfurther be available in specific availability zones, representing alogical region, a fault tolerant region, a data center or othergeographic location of the underlying computing hardware, for example.Instances may be copied within an availability zone or acrossavailability zones to improve the redundancy of the instance, andinstances may be migrated within a particular availability zone oracross availability zones. As one example, the latency for clientcommunications with a particular server in an availability zone may beless than the latency for client communications with a different server.As such, an instance may be migrated from the higher latency server tothe lower latency server to improve the overall client experience.

In some embodiments the provider network may be organized into aplurality of geographical regions, and each region may include one ormore availability zones. An availability zone (which may also bereferred to as an availability container) in turn may comprise one ormore distinct locations or data centers, configured in such a way thatthe resources in a given availability zone may be isolated or insulatedfrom failures in other availability zones. That is, a failure in oneavailability zone may not be expected to result in a failure in anyother availability zone. Thus, the availability profile of a resourceinstance is intended to be independent of the availability profile of aresource instance in a different availability zone. Clients may be ableto protect their applications from failures at a single location bylaunching multiple application instances in respective availabilityzones. At the same time, in some implementations, inexpensive and lowlatency network connectivity may be provided between resource instancesthat reside within the same geographical region (and networktransmissions between resources of the same availability zone may beeven faster).

As set forth above, information may be provided by an informationprovider to one or more clients. An information provider may, forexample, make available one or more information providing services forproviding information to clients. The information providing services mayreside on one or more servers. The information providing services may bescalable to meet the demands of one or more customers and may increaseor decrease in capability based on the number and type of incomingclient requests. Portions of information providing services may also bemigrated to be placed in positions of reduced latency with requestingclients. For example, the information provider may determine an “edge”of a system or network associated with information providing servicesthat is physically and/or logically closest to a particular client. Theinformation provider may then, for example, “spin-up,” migrate resourcesor otherwise employ components associated with the determined edge forinteracting with the particular client. Such an edge determinationprocess may, in some cases, provide an efficient technique foridentifying and employing components that are well-suited to interactwith a particular client, and may, in some embodiments, reduce thelatency for communications between an information provider and one ormore clients.

As set forth above, techniques for presentation of associated contentitem instances are disclosed herein. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating ofan example content presentation system that may be used in accordancewith the present disclosure. As shown, FIG. 3 includes a first computenode 310, which executes a first content item instance 311. In somecases, first compute node 310 may be a client compute node and mayinclude a device such as, for example, a video gaming system and/or adesktop, laptop, tablet or mobile computing device. First content iteminstance 311 may be an instance of a content item such as, for example,a video game. The term content, as used herein, refers to informationthat is capable of being presented, while the term content item, as usedherein, refers to a collection of content. Participants 301A-Ccommunicate with first content item instance 311 to actively control thefirst content item instance 311. Participants 301A-C may be, forexample, players of a video game and each may sometimes controldifferent characters or other entities within the context of the videogame. Participants 301A-C may control first content item instance 311using, for example, controllers, virtual gamepads, mouse, keyboard,audio control, gesture control or any other type of input control.Inputs from participants 301A-C may be provided to first content iteminstance 311 as control input 313B.

Participants 301A-C may also provide participant audio 318 associatedwith first content item instance 311. In some cases, each ofparticipants 301A-C may wear a headset with a personal microphone orhave access to another type of personal microphone. In some cases, inparticipant audio 318, participant 301A-C may explain their strategiesand reasoning for performing various actions within the context of thefirst content item instance 311. For example, if first content iteminstance 311 is a football video game, then the participant audio 318may sometimes include a particular participant's reasoning for choosingto throw the ball instead of running the ball, for choosing to throw theball to a particular player, or for selecting a particular type ofdefense. Also, in some cases, participant audio 318 may includereactions from participants 301A-C to various events within the contentof first content item instance 311. For example, when a player scores atouchdown, other competing players may congratulate the scoring playeron a successful pass or run or may complain about a missed tackle or apenalty that should have been called.

As also shown in FIG. 3, first content item instance 311 may maintain orotherwise access first instance information 312, which may include, forexample, information associated with the first content item instance311. In the particular example of FIG. 3, first instance information 312includes state information 313A and control input 313B. As set forthabove, in the particular example of FIG. 3, control input 313B includesinput from participants 301A-C. Control input 313B may include, forexample, information such as movement of characters, weapons, vehiclesor other participant-controlled entities. As another example, controlinput 313B may include selections and options such as skill level, timelimits, selected virtual geography, selected characters and opponents,selected weapons, selected plays, story lines, decisions, branches, andthe like. State information 313A may include information associated withone or more states of first content item instance 311. State information313A may include, for example, information associated with timing,locations and positions of characters and other entities, performancedata, historical data, option and selection data, scores, achievements,and the like, as well as a record of all, or any portion, of controlinput 313B.

First content item instance 311 may use first instance information 312to render and otherwise generate first audio output 314 and first videooutput 315. As should be appreciated, a number of other componentsand/or portions of information may also be used to generate first audiooutput 314 and first video output 315. For example, in some cases, firstaudio output 314 and first video output 315 may be generated based onunderlying code or other information associated with first content iteminstance 311 as well as various processing components, such as one ormore graphics processing units (GPUs) and various audio processingcomponents. First audio output 314 is presented to participants 301A-Cusing speakers 316, while first video output 315 is presented toparticipants 301A-C using display 317. It is noted that speakers 316 anddisplay 317 are merely some example output presentation components andany number of other output presentation components may also be employed.

In addition to being used to generate first audio output 314 and firstvideo output 315, first instance information 312 may, in whole or in inpart, be collected and provided to second compute node 320 by firstinstance information collection components 319. First compute node 310and second compute node 320 may communicate over one or more networkssuch as the Internet or another wide area network (WAN) a local areanetwork (LAN) or any combinations thereof. In some cases, first instanceinformation 312 may be continually updated and streamed from firstcompute node 310 to second compute node 320 as first content iteminstance 312 is executed at first compute node 310. In some cases,second compute node 320 may include one or more server computers. It isalso noted that the functionality shown in FIG. 3 as being performed bysecond compute node 320 may be distributed across any number ofdifferent compute nodes, which may each be referred to herein as secondcompute nodes.

In some cases, first instance information collection components 319 maybe included within first content item instance 311 and/or withinunderlying code or other information associated with first content iteminstance 311. For example, in some cases, a content item spectatingservice may advertise itself as offering the abilities to providecontent items from participants to spectators using the featuresdisclosed herein, and participants may then download or otherwise obtaincontent items from such a service and install the content items on theirdevices. When executed, these content items may, for example, use firstinstance information collection components 319 to cause a connection tobe established to a second compute node 320 and to collect and transmitfirst content item information 312 to the second compute node 320. Insome other examples, first instance information collection components319 may be components that are external to the first content iteminstance 311. In such cases, first instance information collectioncomponents 319 may also be provided by a content item spectating servicesuch as described above. Also, in some cases, one or more particularfirst instance information collection components 319 may be capable ofcollecting and transmitting or otherwise providing first instanceinformation 312 for a variety of different content items such asdifferent video game titles.

As shown in FIG. 3, first instance information 312 is provided to secondcompute node 320 as second instance input 322 for second content iteminstance 321. First content item instance 311 and second content iteminstance 321 may be associated instances of the same or similar contentitems. For example, in some cases, first content item instance 311 andsecond content item instance 321 may be separate executing instances ofthe same video game title. First content item instance 311 and secondcontent item instance 321 may sometimes have access to separaterespective copies of versions underlying code or other informationassociated with a particular content item. There is no requirement,however, that the underlying code or other information available tosecond content item instance 321 must be identical to the underlyingcode or other information available to first content item instance 311.For example, in some cases, second content item instance 321 may includecontent that is at least partially different from first content iteminstance 311, such as at least partially different scenes, at leastpartially different graphics, at least partially different audio or atleast partially different story arcs. In some cases, first content iteminstance 311 and second content item instance 321 may executesimultaneously or partially simultaneously with respect to one another.However, there is no requirement that first content item instance 311and second content item instance 321 must execute simultaneously orpartially simultaneously with respect to one another. For example, insome cases, second instance input 322 may be saved at second computenode 320, thereby allowing second content item instance 321 to executeat a later time than first content item instance 311 is executed.

In some cases, the second content item instance 321 may be initiatedbased on a request from third compute node 330 for output correspondingto a content item with which the first and second content item instances311 and 321 are associated. For example, a spectator 302 operating thethird compute node 330 may wish to have output corresponding to theassociated content item presented at the third compute node 330. In somecases, a content item spectating service, such as described above, maycause the second compute node 320 to provide to spectators a list ofcontent items that are available to spectators for spectating. Forexample, in some cases, second compute node 320 may transmit to thirdcompute node 330 a list of content items that are currently availablefor spectating. Receiving of the first instance information 312 fromfirst compute node 310 may cause the second compute node 320 todesignate the particular content item associated with the first and thesecond content item instances 311 and 321 as being available forspectating. This, in turn, may cause the associated content item toappear in the list of content items available for spectating provided bythe second compute node 320 to the third compute node 330. The thirdcompute node 320 may then request the associated content item, therebycausing the second content item instance 321 to be initiated at thesecond compute node 320. As should be appreciated, the above describedprocess is merely one example process for initiation of the secondcontent item instance 321 and many other initiation processes forinitiation of the second content item instance 321 are contemplated inaccordance with the disclosed techniques.

Upon being initiated, second content item instance 321 may render andotherwise generate second audio output 324 and second video output 325based, at least in part, on second instance input 322. As set forthabove, second instance input 322 includes at least part of firstinstance information 312, which may include, for example, stateinformation 313A and control input 313B and other information associatedwith first content item instance 311. As should be appreciated, a numberof other components and/or portions of information may also be used togenerate second audio output 324 and second video output 325. Forexample, in some cases, second audio output 324 and first video output325 may be generated based on underlying code or other informationassociated with second content item instance 321 as well as variousprocessing components, such as one or more graphics processing units(GPUs) and various audio processing components. Additionally, as will bedescribed in detail below, second audio output 324 and second videooutput 325 may also be generated, for example, based on requests orother input from spectator 302.

Second audio output 324 and/or second video output 325 are provided tooutput stream generation components 323, which collect audio/or videoinformation associated with a content item to generate output stream327. In addition to second audio output 324 and second video output 325,output stream 327 may also include all, or any portion of, participantaudio data 318 transmitted from first compute node 310 to second computenode 320. As will be described in detail below, participant audio 318may be mixed into output stream 327 by audio mixing components 328.Output stream 327 may also include all, or any portion, of the secondinstance input 322, such as input control information and/or stateinformation.

Output stream 327 is transmitted by output stream generation components323 from second compute node 320 to third compute node 330. Secondcompute node 320 and third compute node 330 may communicate over one ormore networks such as the Internet or another wide area network (WAN) alocal area network (LAN) or any combinations thereof. Although not shownin FIG. 3, second compute node 320 and third compute node 330 mayinclude a number of communications components for efficientlycommunicating over one or more networks, such as one or more encodingand decoding components and/or error correction components. In somecases, third compute node 330 may be a client compute node and mayinclude a device such as, for example, a video gaming system and/or adesktop, laptop, tablet or mobile computing device. As should beappreciated, output stream 327 or any other collection of output dataassociated with second content item instance 321 may be transmitted toany number of different third compute nodes.

Upon being received by third compute node 330, the information fromoutput stream 327 may be processed by presentation control components331. The information from output stream 327 may then be presented tospectator 302 using speakers 336 and display 337. It is noted thatspeakers 316 and display 317 are merely some example output presentationcomponents and any number of other output presentation components mayalso be employed. As will be described below, spectator 302 or anotherparty may control the presentation of the output stream 317 using, forexample, input components 355, which may include for example, acontroller, gesture based control, a touchscreen, and a microphone.Input from such input components 355 may be processed by presentationcontrol components 331 and, in some cases, transmitted back to secondcompute node 320 to assist in controlling generation of output stream327.

It is noted that, although only a single output stream 327 and a singlethird compute node 330 are shown in FIG. 3, any number of output streamsincluding identical, different, or partially different information maybe transmitted, directly or indirectly, from second compute node 320 toany number of different third compute nodes, which may be operated byany number of different spectators. As an example, in some cases,multiple different spectators may sometimes wish to select differentvideo and/or audio presentation effects, such as different virtualcamera perspectives and different directional audio effects. As anotherexample, in some cases, one or more spectators, which are referred toherein as passive spectators, may decide to receive an output streamwith the same video and/or audio presentation effects that are selectedby one or more other spectators, which are referred to herein as activespectators. In such cases, the output stream that is transmitted to theactive spectators (including audio and/or video presentation effectsselected by the active spectators) may also be transmitted to thepassive spectators. In some cases, the output stream may be delivereddirectly from the second compute node 320 to both the active spectatorsand the passive spectators. Also, in some cases, the output stream maybe received by the active spectators first and then forwarded from theactive spectators to the passive spectators.

It is further noted that the functionality shown in FIG. 3 as beingperformed by a single first compute node 310 may sometimes bedistributed across multiple different compute nodes, which may each bereferred to herein as first compute nodes. For example, thefunctionality performed by first compute node 310 may be distributedacross one or more server first compute nodes and one or more clientfirst compute nodes. In some cases, the first content item instance 311may be played by multiple different participants operating multipledifferent remote clients. The multiple remote clients may provide userinput associated with the first content item instance 311 to a centralserver, which may sometimes distribute state information updates to theclients. The server may also sometimes render video and/or audio forpresentation on the clients. This client-server framework may allow thefirst content item instance 311 to be played simultaneously on themultiple remote clients. In some cases, one or more server first computenodes may collect the control input, game state, and other firstinstance information 312 for the first content item instance 311 andprovide the collected first instance information 312 to second computenode 320.

Thus, in some cases, the above described techniques may allow twoassociated instances (i.e., first content item instance 311 and secondcontent item instance 321) to be generated based, at least in part, onthe same or similar information (i.e., first instance information 312).Generation of the two associated content item instances may, forexample, allow spectator 301 to experience an associated content item inaccordance with input from participants 301A-C without the need tocapture and stream high bandwidth-consuming video data from firstcompute node 310 to second compute node 320. Additionally, generation ofthe two associated content item instances may also, for example, allowspectator 301 to experience an associated content item using severalenhanced presentation effects, which are described in detail below.

Furthermore, it is noted that second compute 320 may sometimes offer anumber of enhanced capabilities that may not be available, or may belimited in availability, to first compute node 310. For example, in somecases, second compute 320 may include or have access to multiplegraphics processing units (GPUs), while first compute node 310 may haveaccess to only a single GPU. Additionally, in some cases, the GPUsand/or other audio and video processing components available to secondcompute node 320 may be faster and more sophisticated than thoseavailable to first compute node 310. These enhanced capabilities may, insome cases, allow second content item instance 321 to generate secondaudio output 324 and second video output 325 with higher complexity,more detail, better clarity, better quality, and higher resolution thanfirst audio output 314 and first video output 315 generated by firstcontent item instance 311. This may, for example, allow content to bepresented to spectator 301 with higher audio and video quality than inother systems in which spectator 301 views a stream that must beidentical to that generated and displayed on a participant device. Insome cases, in order to allow for more robust graphics and audio to begenerated at second compute node 320, the underlying code available tosecond content item instance 321 may be slightly different than theunderlying code available to first content item instance 311. Forexample, the underlying code available to second content item instance321 could include additional graphics data for generating graphics withgreater detail and complexity than the underlying code available tofirst content item instance 311.

Some additional examples of enhanced presentation effects that may, insome cases, be made available using the disclosed techniques to are nowdescribed with reference to FIG. 4. In particular, FIG. 4 illustrates adiagram of an example spectator presentation control interface 401.Interface 401 may be executed at third compute node 330 and may beincluded within or otherwise in communication with spectatorpresentation control components 331 of FIG. 3. As shown, Interface 401includes a content display window 410, which may display video outputfrom second content item instance 321. Additionally, interface 401includes example controls 431-439 for controlling the presentation ofsecond content item instance 321. It is noted that controls 431-439 aremerely some examples of enhanced presentation functionality that may beemployed in accordance with the disclosed techniques. Specifically, playcontrol 431, pause control 432, stop control 433 and reverse control 434may allow playing, pausing, stop and reverse, respectively, of theplayback of second content item instance 321 at third compute node 330.Furthermore, adjust play speed control 435 may allow the second contentitem instance 321 to be replayed at adjustable speeds, such as slowerand, in some cases, faster than typical speeds.

Adjust camera perspective control 436 may allow spectator 302 to adjustthe virtual camera to different positions and/or directions with respectto a particular scene or scenes. For example, in some cases, a scene mayinitially be presented in interface 401 using the same cameraperspective that was used for the corresponding scene in the firstcontent item instance 311. However, interface 401 may allow spectator302 to subsequently reverse the video feed (e.g., using reverse control434) and then replay the scene using control 436 to move and/or rotatethe camera perspective and capture the same scene from a differentposition and/or direction than was used for the corresponding scene inthe first content item instance 311. For example, consider the scenarioin which a virtual camera initially captures a scene from a cameraperspective corresponding to a character's eyes (e.g., from a positionof the characters eyes in an outward pointing direction) in order toshow a scene from the character's point of view. Now suppose thatspectator 302 instead prefers to see an expression on the character'sface within the scene. Spectator 302 may accomplish this by reversingthe scene and adjusting the camera perspective to a position in frontfrom the character and to a direction pointing back towards thecharacter's face.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustration of how different virtual cameraperspectives may be used to capture a particular scene. As shown in FIG.5, scene 500 is a three-dimensional scene that includes threedimensional entities 501 and 502. For purposes of simplicity, entities501 and 502 are depicted FIG. 5 as having square and rectangular flatsurfaces. However, scenes generated in accordance with the presentdisclosure may include more complex entities such as human characters,vehicles, animals, trees, clouds and many more.

View 510 represents a first view of scene 500 from a first virtualcamera perspective with respect to the scene 500. For example, view 510may represent an image of scene 500 as viewed from particular angles anddistances with respect to points in scene 500, such as points on orwithin entities 501 and 502. Arrow 511 represents a direction of viewwith respect to view 510, which is facing from view 510 towards a centerof scene 500.

View 520 represents a second view of scene 500 from a second virtualcamera perspective with respect to the scene 500. For example, view 520may represent an image of scene 500 as viewed from different particularangles and distances with respect to points in scene 500, such as pointson or within entities 501 and 502. Arrow 521 represents a direction ofview with respect to view 520, which is facing from view 520 towards acenter of scene 500.

As shown in FIG. 5, view 520 is taken from a different cameraperspective relative to scene 500 than view 510. Accordingly, view 510may include and display certain features of scene 500 that are notincluded or displayed in view 520. For example, view 510 may include aview of the side of entity 501 that faces view 510. By contrast, theside of entity 501 that faces view 510 may not be visible in view 520because view 520 faces the opposite side of entity 501. Additionally, inview 520, entity 501 may be at least partially obscured by entity 502,which is positioned between view 520 and entity 501. On the other hand,view 520 may include and display certain features of scene 500 that arenot included or displayed in view 510. For example, view 520 may includea view of the side of entity 502 that faces view 520. By contrast, theside of entity 502 that faces view 510 may not be visible in view 510because view 510 faces the opposite side of entity 502. Additionally, inview 510, entity 502 may be at least partially obscured by entity 501,which is positioned between view 510 and entity 502.

Referring back to FIG. 4, adjust zoom control 437 may allow the zoom ofthe virtual camera capturing the scene to be adjusted, such as byzooming inward and/or zooming outward. For example, a spectator may, insome cases, wish to reverse and replay a scene by zooming inward toprovide greater detail on an important portion of the scene or zoomingout to capture added graphics and information that may not have beeninitially presented.

Add audio commentary control 438 may allow spectator 302 or anotherparty to add audio commentary into the presentation of the content item.For example, spectator 302 may wish to comment on certain features ofthe presentation of the content item, such as by criticizing poorperformances by various participants 301A-C, by applauding strongperformances by various participants 301A-C, or by explaining what thespectator 302 may have done the same or differently in a similarcontext. In such cases, third compute node input components 355 of FIG.3 may include a microphone for receiving the audio commentary. Thereceived audio commentary may, for example, be synchronized and savedwith corresponding portions of the presented content item, such that theaudio commentary is replayed along with successive replays of thepresented content item.

Add visual overlays control 439 may allow spectator 302 or another partyto add visual overlay graphics into the presentation of the contentitem. In some cases, spectator 302 may wish to highlight or otherwiseemphasize or indicate certain features of the presentation of thecontent item using visual overlays. The visual overlays may sometimes beadded using, for example, a pen or finger on a touchscreen or othersimilar technique. As examples, spectator 302 may choose to indicateimportant areas of a scene, such as areas particularly related tomistakes or successes of performances of the participants 301A-C. Thereceived visual overlays may, for example, be saved and correlated withcorresponding areas and portions of the presented content item, suchthat the visual overlays are displayed along with successive replays ofthe presented content item.

As set forth above, second compute node 320 may, in some cases, includecomponents, such as audio mixing components 328 of FIG. 3, for mixing ofaudio data received from first compute node 310. FIG. 6 is a diagramillustrating example audio mixing operations that may be used inaccordance with the present disclosure. In particular, as shown in FIG.6, audio mixing component 328 receives audio portion 601A correspondingto participant 301A, audio portion 601B corresponding to participant301B, and audio portion 601C corresponding to participant 301C. As wasshown in FIG. 3, for example, first component 310 may receiveparticipant audio 318, which may include portions such as audio portions610A-C. First component 310 may then transmit the received participantaudio 318 to audio mixing component 328 at second compute node 320.

As also set forth above, in some cases, each of participants 301A-C maywear a headset with a personal microphone or have access to another typeof personal microphone. These personal microphones may sometimes beadvantageous because they may generally improve audio quality byproviding microphones that are at close range to each of the differentparticipants 301A-C, regardless of where each participant 301A-C issitting in a particular room. However, while these personal microphonesmay sometimes serve to improve general audio quality, they may sometimesmake it difficult for a listener to determine which words are beingspoken by which of the multiple participants 301A-C. This is because theaudio portions provided by each of the participants 301A-C from personalmicrophones may sometimes include minimal directional or locationalcharacteristics. For example, a participant sitting in a corner of theroom and speaking into a personal microphone may sound very similar toanother participant sitting in the center of the room and speaking intoa personal microphone.

Audio mixing components 328 may sometimes apply certain audio effects611A-C to audio portions 601A-C. In particular, audio mixing components328 apply audio effects 611A to audio portion 601A, audio effects 611Bto audio portion 601B, and audio effects 611C to audio portion 601C. Theaudio effects 611A-C may include, for example, certain directionaleffects. In one example, audio effects 611A may include effects thatcause audio portion 601A to be played out of a right speaker, audioeffects 611B may include effects that cause audio portion 601B to beplayed out of a center speaker, and audio effects 611C may includeeffects that cause audio portion 601C to be played out of a leftspeaker. As another example, audio effects 611A-C may include certainvolume levels that may be assigned to each of audio portions 601A-C inorder to, for example, create perceptions of distances and/or depths.Any number of other additional audio effects may also be applied. It isnoted that, in some cases, audio effects may be applied to less than allinput streams. Also, in some cases, particular audio effects may beapplied to multiple input streams. These applied audio effects maysometimes help listeners, such as spectator 302, to better distinguishbetween different speakers, such as participants 301A-C. It is furthernoted that, in addition to helping listeners to better distinguishbetween different speakers, audio effects may also be applied to audioportion for any other desired reasons.

Some example techniques for providing content in accordance with thedisclosed techniques will now be described in detail. In particular,FIG. 7 is a flowchart depicting an example content providing processthat may be used in accordance with the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 7, at operation 710, first instance information is received. As setforth above, the first instance information is information associatedwith a first content item instance, which may be executed at one or morefirst compute nodes. The first content item instance may be played by,and presented to, one or more participants that actively control theplaying of the first content item instance. The first instanceinformation may include, for example, control input from participants aswell as state information associated with the first content iteminstance. As also set forth above, the first instance information may bereceived by one or more second compute nodes after being collected byone or more first compute nodes and transmitted to the one or moresecond compute nodes using, for example, one or more networks such asthe Internet.

At operation 712, the received first instance information, or anyportion thereof, is provided as input to a second content item instance.As set forth above, the second content item instance may execute at theone or more second compute nodes. The second content item instance andthe first content item may, for example, be instances of the same videogame title or other content item title. As also set forth above,however, some differences may exist between various features of thefirst content item instance and the second content item instance. Insome cases, the second content item instance may execute simultaneouslyor partially simultaneously with the first content item instance, butthere is no requirement that the first and second content item instancesexecute simultaneously or partially simultaneously with one another. Insome cases, the second content item instance may be initiated based on,for example, a request from a spectator to be presented with a spectatorversion of a content item with which the first and second content iteminstances are associated.

At operation 714, spectator input is received and provided as input tothe second content item instance. The spectator input may be receivedfrom one or more third compute nodes and may be provided by one or morespectators. The spectator input refers to information associated withrequested characteristics of audio and/or video information forpresentation. The spectator input may include, for example, playbackcontrol input (e.g., play, pause, stop, reverse), play speed adjustmentinput, virtual camera perspective adjustment input, virtual camera zoomadjustment input, added audio commentary information, added visualoverlay information, resolution information, and other spectator inputinformation. Some examples of spectator input information and how suchinformation may be applied and used to present content are described indetail above, such as with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5, and are notrepeated here. It is noted, however, that spectator input informationmay sometimes cause portions of audio and/or video information to bepresented to spectators with characteristics that differ from thoseassociated with respective portions of the first content item instancepresented to participants at one or more first compute nodes. Forexample, scenes may be sometimes be presented to spectators withdifferent virtual camera perspective than those used for respectivescenes presented to participants in the first content item instance.

At operation 716, audio and/or video information corresponding to theoutput of the second content item instance is generated. For example,the second content item instance may sometimes use participant controlinput and state information from the first content item instance togenerate a particular scene. The second content item instance may thenuse virtual camera perspective information provided by the spectator todetermine characteristics such as a position, direction, and angle ofthe virtual camera with respect to the generated scene. The generatedscene and virtual camera perspective information may then be used togenerate an image of the scene or a portion of an image of the scene. Atoperation 718, the generated audio and video information, or any portionthereof, is collected.

At operation 720, participant audio information is received. As setforth above, the participant audio may be received by, for example, oneor more second compute nodes after being collected and transmitted byone or more first compute nodes using, for example, one or morenetworks, such as the Internet. The received participant audioinformation may correspond to, for example, commentary from theparticipants describing their activity within the first content iteminstance, such as performance, strategy, criticism or praise ofthemselves and/or other participants, and the like. As also set forthabove, the participant audio information may sometimes be collectedusing headsets or other personal microphone devices that may bepositioned in close proximity to each respective participant.

At operation 722, one or more audio effects are applied to theparticipant audio information. For example, as set forth above, theparticipant audio information may include a number of portions eachassociated with a respective participant. Each portion, may, forexample, be captured from a headset or personal microphone associatedwith a respective participant. As also set forth above, in some cases,one or more audio effects may be applied to each portion of theparticipant audio information. For example, audio associated with eachspectator could be assigned to a respective speaker (or other assigneddirectional effect) or may be assigned a respective volume level orother audio effect. Such effects may sometimes make it easier for alistener to determine which portions of the participant audio areprovided by which participants.

At operation 724, the collected audio and video data corresponding tothe output of the second content item instance and the participant audioare combined into an output stream, and, at operation 726, the outputstream is transmitted. As set forth above, the output stream may betransmitted to one or more third compute nodes for presentation to oneor more spectators. As should be appreciated, the example process shownin FIG. 7, or any portions thereof, may be repeated as necessary forvarious scene or other portions of the first and/or second content iteminstances.

Some example techniques for providing spectator feedback to one or moreinstances of a content item will now be described in detail. Inparticular, in some cases, it may be desirable for spectators to providefeedback to an instance of a content item that is in the progress ofbeing played by one or more participants. For example, one or more videogame spectators may provide feedback to one or more participants thatare playing the video game. Such spectator feedback may include, forexample, information associated with events, objects, characters, or anyother entities within the context of the content item. For example, insome cases, spectator feedback may request that one or more characters,optionally controlled by one or more participants, be added to a game orportion of a game, removed from a game or portion of a game, or modifiedin some manner, such as being granted, or having removed, variousskills, powers, tools, weapons, first aid and medical supplies,finances, resources, knowledge, affiliations, memberships, and the like.In one specific example, spectator feedback may be a request to make oneor more objects available to one or more characters or a request torestrict availability of one or more objects to one or more characters.In addition to characters, spectator feedback may also requestadditions, removals, and/or modifications of one or more objects withina content item or portion of a content item. For example, spectators mayrequest that a particular type of vehicle, weapon, animal, building, orother object be added, removed, and/or modified with respect to acontent item or portion of a content item. Also, in some examples,spectator feedback may include requests for one or more events to occur,not occur, be paused, stopped, rescheduled, or be modified in somemanner. For example, spectators may request a fight or otherconfrontation between one or more characters. Spectators may also, forexample, request that a fight be extended from five minutes to tenminutes or from two rounds to four rounds. As another example,spectators may request to initiate, terminate or modify acts of naturesuch as thunder, lightning, rain, snow, hurricanes, tornadoes, waves,typhoons, and the like.

In some examples, spectator feedback may include one or more votes fromone or more spectators in relation to certain features of a contentitem. For example, spectators may vote to decide which characters havewon and/or lost a fight or other confrontation. Spectators may vote topredict which characters will win and/or lose a fight or otherconfrontation. As another example, spectators may vote to decide whethera character should live or die, should advance to a higher level, bedemoted to a lower level, earn a reward, be stripped of a reward, andthe like. Spectators may also vote to attempt to predict an outcome ofany of the above or other events. Also, in some examples, spectators maywager on the outcomes of one or more events or occurrences within acontent item. For example, spectators may wager as to which charactersmay win or lose a fight or a poker match. In some cases, odds associatedwith particular available wager selections may be generated anddisplayed, such as odds that one or more characters will win or lose afight. The odds may be based on, for example, performance of theparticipants controlling the characters and/or attributes of thecharacters themselves, such as strength, weapons, intelligence, and thelike. In some cases, if a particular character receives favorablefeedback, such as high amounts of wagers predicting that the particularcharacter will win a fight, then the particular character may beprovided with additional weapons or resources. By contrast, if aparticular character receives negative feedback, such as high amounts ofwagers predicting that the particular character will lose a fight, thenthe particular character may be stripped of certain weapons orresources.

In some cases, a name or other identifier associated with one or morespectators that request feedback may be associated with the feedback anddisplayed or otherwise indicated when the feedback is applied to acontent item. For example, in some cases, names of voters and/or bettersmay be displayed adjacent to a particular vote count or bet count. Asanother example, a particular color lightning bolt could indicate that astorm is requested by a particular spectator. In some examples, evenwhen indication of spectator identities is available, some spectatorsmay still request that their identities remain anonymous in some or allcases.

In some cases, spectator feedback may be made universally available toall spectators. By contrast, in some cases, all, or certain types, ofspectator feedback may only be made available to certain spectators,such as spectators that pay a fee, have a membership, or are consideredexpert players. As another example, in some cases, different fees orcosts may be associated with rights to provide different types offeedback. Also, in some cases, one or more spectators may be providedwith an option to select and/or de-select types of spectator feedbackthat are available to be provided by one or more other spectators. Forexample, as set forth above, in some cases, one or more spectators,which are referred to herein as passive spectators, may decide toreceive an output stream with the same video and/or audio presentationeffects that are selected by one or more other spectators, which arereferred to herein as active spectators. In some cases, one or moreactive spectators may have the ability to control which types ofspectator feedback may be provided by one or more passive spectators.For example, in some cases, only active spectators may be permitted torequest a poll, or pose a question for spectator vote or set upspectator wagering within the context of the content item, while, inother cases, any spectator may be permitted to do so. As anotherexample, in some cases, all votes by passive spectators may beattributed to a corresponding active spectator.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example content presentation systemwith spectator feedback that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure. The example system shown in FIG. 8 is identical to theexample system shown in FIG. 3 and described in detail above, with theexception that the example system shown in FIG. 8 includes a backchannel810 (represented by a dashed line in FIG. 8) from input controlcomponents 329 of second compute node 320 to control input 313B receivedby first compute node 310. In particular, the backchannel 810 may beused to provide spectator feedback, or any portions thereof, as input tothe first content item instance 311. As should be appreciated, thespectator feedback may be provided by one or more spectators 302 andtransmitted from one or more third compute nodes 330 to input controlcomponents 329 of second compute node 320. Second compute node 320 may,in some cases, process the spectator feedback, such as by compiling orcoordinating related feedback from different spectators, beforeforwarding the feedback to the first content item instance 311.Providing of the spectator feedback to first content item instance 311may allow the first content item instance 311 to be presented to based,at least in part, on at least a portion of the spectator feedback, suchas in any of the example manners described above or others. It is notedthat, in some cases, providing of spectator feedback to first contentitem instance 311 may also result in the spectator feedback beingreflected in the second instance input 322 collected from the firstcontent item instance 311, and, therefore, being reflected in the secondaudio and video outputs 324 and 325. Nevertheless, in some cases,spectator feedback may also be provided from input control components329 to second content item instance 321 via second instance input 322.

It is noted that the example system of FIG. 8 depicts what may sometimesbe referred to as a mirroring or partial-mirroring scenario, in whichthe second content item instance 321 may sometimes mirror or partiallymirror the output of the first content item instance 311. As should beappreciated, however, the spectator feedback techniques described hereinare not necessarily limited to mirroring or partial-mirroring scenariosand may sometimes be employed in non-mirroring scenarios, such as incases video and audio output of the first content item instance 311 areprovided to spectators 302 and there is no corresponding second contentitem instance. In these non-mirroring scenarios, spectator feedback may,for example, be provided from spectators to the first content iteminstance via components such as input control components 329.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart depicting an example content providing processwith spectator feedback that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure. In particular, FIG. 9 shows two different optional scenariosthat may be performed depending upon whether mirroring orpartial-mirroring techniques are employed (e.g., as shown in FIG. 8) orwhether non-mirroring techniques are employed (e.g., with no secondcontent item instance being employed). Specifically, optional mirroringoperations 910 include example operations 910A-D, which may be employedin a mirroring or partial-mirroring approach. Additionally, optionalnon-mirroring operations 912 include example operation 912A, which maybe employed in a non-mirroring approach. It is noted that operations910A-D are identical to operations 710-718 of FIG. 7 and, therefore, adescription of these operations will not be repeated here. In general,it is noted that operations 910 allow audio and video informationcorresponding to a second content item instance, such as second contentitem instance 321 of FIG. 8, to be generated for transmission tospectators. As noted above, the second content item instance 321 maysometimes mirror or partially mirror the output of the first contentitem instance 311. By contrast, operation 912A allows audio and/or videoinformation corresponding to a first content item instance to begenerated (e.g., without use of a mirrored or partially-mirrored secondcontent item instance).

At operation 914, audio and video information associated with a contentitem are collected. In particular, when mirroring or partial-mirroringtechniques are employed, the audio and video information collected atoperation 914 may include audio and video information corresponding tothe second content item instance generated at operation 910D. Bycontrast, in cases when non-mirroring techniques are employed, the audioand video information collected at operation 914 may include audio andvideo information corresponding to the first content item instancegenerated at operation 912A. At operation 916, the collected audio andvideo data are combined into an output stream, and, at operation 918,the output stream is transmitted. As set forth above, the output streammay be transmitted to one or more third compute nodes, which may also bereferred to as spectator compute nodes, for presentation to one or morespectators. At operation 918, spectator feedback information may bereceived from one or more spectator compute nodes, including, forexample, any of the example spectator feedback information describedabove or other spectator feedback information. At operation 920, atleast part of the spectator feedback information is provided to at leastone content item instance. In the mirroring or partial-mirroringscenario, in some examples, spectator feedback information may beprovided to the first content item instance and optionally to the secondcontent item instance. In the non-mirroring scenario, spectator feedbackinformation may be provided to the first content item instance. Ineither scenario, the first content item instance may be presented to atleast one participant user based, at least in part, on the informationassociated with spectator feedback. For example, the informationassociated with spectator feedback may sometimes be used to at leastpartially control generation of audio, video, and/or other data by thefirst content item instance. Many example types of spectator feedbackare described in detail above and are not repeated here. However, it isnoted that any of the examples of spectator feedback described above, orother types of spectator feedback, may, for example, be processed ascontrol input by the first content item instance to generate resultingaudio, video, or other output data for presentation. Furthermore, insome examples, spectator feedback may also be provided as input to oneor more additional applications associated with the first content iteminstance. In one particular example, spectator feedback may include arequest by one or more spectators to provide money or other currency toa particular participant's banking account or other financialapplication. In yet another example, a spectator may request that audioand/or video content be provided to a media playing applicationaccessible to one or more participants.

Each of the processes, methods and algorithms described in the precedingsections may be embodied in, and fully or partially automated by, codemodules executed by one or more computers or computer processors. Thecode modules may be stored on any type of non-transitorycomputer-readable medium or computer storage device, such as harddrives, solid state memory, optical disc and/or the like. The processesand algorithms may be implemented partially or wholly inapplication-specific circuitry. The results of the disclosed processesand process steps may be stored, persistently or otherwise, in any typeof non-transitory computer storage, such as, e.g., volatile ornon-volatile storage.

The various features and processes described above may be usedindependently of one another, or may be combined in various ways. Allpossible combinations and sub-combinations are intended to fall withinthe scope of this disclosure. In addition, certain methods or processblocks may be omitted in some implementations. The methods and processesdescribed herein are also not limited to any particular sequence, andthe blocks or states relating thereto can be performed in othersequences that are appropriate. For example, described blocks or statesmay be performed in an order other than that specifically disclosed, ormultiple blocks or states may be combined in a single block or state.The example blocks or states may be performed in serial, in parallel orin some other manner. Blocks or states may be added to or removed fromthe disclosed example embodiments. The example systems and componentsdescribed herein may be configured differently than described. Forexample, elements may be added to, removed from or rearranged comparedto the disclosed example embodiments.

It will also be appreciated that various items are illustrated as beingstored in memory or on storage while being used, and that these items orportions thereof may be transferred between memory and other storagedevices for purposes of memory management and data integrity.Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the software modulesand/or systems may execute in memory on another device and communicatewith the illustrated computing systems via inter-computer communication.Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the systems and/ormodules may be implemented or provided in other ways, such as at leastpartially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to,one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standardintegrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executing appropriateinstructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embeddedcontrollers), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complexprogrammable logic devices (CPLDs), etc. Some or all of the modules,systems and data structures may also be stored (e.g., as softwareinstructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such asa hard disk, a memory, a network or a portable media article to be readby an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. The systems,modules and data structures may also be transmitted as generated datasignals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digitalpropagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission media,including wireless-based and wired/cable-based media, and may take avariety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analogsignal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Suchcomputer program products may also take other forms in otherembodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced withother computer system configurations.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,”“might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically statedotherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, isgenerally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, whileother embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/orsteps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended toimply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required forone or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarilyinclude logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting,whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to beperformed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,”“including,” “having” and the like are synonymous and are usedinclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additionalelements, features, acts, operations and so forth. Also, the term “or”is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so thatwhen used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or”means one, some or all of the elements in the list.

While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodimentshave been presented by way of example only and are not intended to limitthe scope of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, nothing in theforegoing description is intended to imply that any particular feature,characteristic, step, module or block is necessary or indispensable.Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodiedin a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions,substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systemsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinventions disclosed herein. The accompanying claims and theirequivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as wouldfall within the scope and spirit of certain of the inventions disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for providingcontent comprising: receiving, from one or more first compute nodes,information associated with a first content item instance; providing theinformation associated with the first content item instance as input toa second content item instance executed by one or more second computenodes; collecting at least one of audio or video informationcorresponding to output of the second content item instance; andtransmitting data including the at least one of audio or videoinformation to one or more third compute nodes for presentation, whereininput is received that indicates at least one of visual overlayinformation or audio commentary information associated with at least aportion of the transmitted data, and wherein the at least portion of thetransmitted data is presented in combination with the at least one ofvisual overlay information or audio commentary information.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the informationassociated with the first content item instance comprises at least oneof control input associated with the first content item instance orstate information associated with the first content item instance. 3.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, from the one or more first compute nodes, participant audioinformation provided by one or more participants of the first contentitem instance; and inserting the participant audio information into thetransmitted data.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, whereinthe participant audio information includes a plurality of portions eachprovided by a respective participant of a plurality of participants ofthe first content item instance, and wherein each portion of theplurality of portions is inserted into the transmitted data inaccordance with one or more respective audio effects.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first content iteminstance captures a first scene from a first virtual camera perspectivewith respect to the first scene, and wherein the second content iteminstance captures the first scene from a second virtual cameraperspective with respect to the first scene, wherein the second virtualcamera perspective is at least partially different from the firstvirtual camera perspective.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein the transmitted data is received by a plurality of thirdcompute nodes, and wherein at least one of the plurality of thirdcompute nodes selects at least one of video or audio presentationeffects that are used to present the transmitted data on at least oneother of the plurality of third compute nodes.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted datacomprises video information that is presented at the one or more thirdcompute nodes with a different resolution than a resolution at which thefirst content item instance is presented.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the transmitted data comprises graphics withat least one of higher complexity or greater detail than graphicsprovided by the first content item instance.
 9. One or morenon-transitory computer-readable storage media having stored thereoninstructions that, upon execution by one or more second compute nodes,cause the one or more second compute nodes to perform operationscomprising: receiving, from one or more first compute nodes, informationassociated with a first content item instance; providing the informationassociated with the first content item instance as input to a secondcontent item instance executed by the one or more second compute nodes;collecting at least one of audio or video information corresponding tooutput of the second content item instance; and transmitting dataincluding the at least one of audio or video information to one or morethird compute nodes for presentation, wherein input is received thatindicates at least one of visual overlay information or audio commentaryinformation associated with at least a portion of the transmitted data,and wherein the at least portion of the transmitted data is presented incombination with the at least one of visual overlay information or audiocommentary information.
 10. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the informationassociated with the first content item instance comprises at least oneof control input associated with the first content item instance orstate information associated with the first content item instance. 11.The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim9, further the operations further comprise: receiving, from the one ormore first compute nodes, participant audio information provided by oneor more participants of the first content item instance; and insertingthe participant audio information into the transmitted data.
 12. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11,wherein the participant audio information includes a plurality ofportions each provided by a respective participant of a plurality ofparticipants of the first content item instance, and wherein eachportion of the plurality of portions is inserted into the transmitteddata in accordance with one or more respective audio effects.
 13. Theone or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9wherein the first content item instance captures a first scene from afirst virtual camera perspective with respect to the first scene, andwherein the second content item instance captures the first scene from asecond virtual camera perspective with respect to the first scene,wherein the second virtual camera perspective is at least partiallydifferent from the first virtual camera perspective.
 14. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein thetransmitted data is received by a plurality of third compute nodes, andwherein at least one of the plurality of third compute nodes selects atleast one of video or audio presentation effects that are used topresent the transmitted data on at least one other of the plurality ofthird compute nodes.
 15. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the transmitted datacomprises video information that is presented at the one or more thirdcompute nodes with a different resolution than a resolution at which thefirst content item instance is presented.
 16. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein thetransmitted data comprises graphics with at least one of highercomplexity or greater detail than graphics provided by the first contentitem instance.
 17. A system comprising: one or more processors one ormore memories to store a set of instructions, which if executed by theone or more processors, causes the one or more processors to performoperations comprising: receiving, from one or more first compute nodes,information associated with a first content item instance; providing theinformation associated with the first content item instance as input toa second content item instance executed by one or more second computenodes; collecting at least one of audio or video informationcorresponding to output of the second content item instance; andtransmitting data including the at least one of audio or videoinformation to one or more third compute nodes for presentation, whereininput is received that indicates at least one of visual overlayinformation or audio commentary information associated with at least aportion of the transmitted data, and wherein the at least portion of thetransmitted data is presented in combination with the at least one ofvisual overlay information or audio commentary information.
 18. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein the information associated with the firstcontent item instance comprises at least one of control input associatedwith the first content item instance or state information associatedwith the first content item instance.
 19. The system of claim 17,wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the one or morefirst compute nodes, participant audio information provided by one ormore participants of the first content item instance; and inserting theparticipant audio information into the transmitted data.
 20. The systemof claim 19, wherein the participant audio information includes aplurality of portions each provided by a respective participant of aplurality of participants of the first content item instance, andwherein each portion of the plurality of portions is inserted into thetransmitted data in accordance with one or more respective audioeffects.
 21. The system of claim 17, wherein the first content iteminstance captures a first scene from a first virtual camera perspectivewith respect to the first scene, and wherein the second content iteminstance captures the first scene from a second virtual cameraperspective with respect to the first scene, wherein the second virtualcamera perspective is at least partially different from the firstvirtual camera perspective.
 22. The system of claim 17, wherein thetransmitted data is received by a plurality of third compute nodes, andwherein at least one of the plurality of third compute nodes selects atleast one of video or audio presentation effects that are used topresent the transmitted data on at least one other of the plurality ofthird compute nodes.